Continuously moving conveyor rails are in general use for the processing of slaughtered animals on a kill floor. At various stations along the conveyor rail, the carcass will be subjected to various different operations. At one such location the carcass is opened and the entrails are removed. It is then the standard practice for the entrails to be inspected by an officially appointed inspector who checks the entrails to ensure that they are healthy. Any unhealthy entrails will be condemned as unfit for consumption. He will also check the entrail cavity in the carcass.
In the past, entrail conveyor tables have been provided which moved along a fixed path. Problems occurred in moving the entrails from the carcass to the entrail conveyor. In particular, this involved unpleasant manual tasks, and it is increasingly difficult to find labour willing to carry out such work and it is desirable to reduce or eliminate such manual tasks, as far as possible.
In the past, the inspection task has been carried out on such tables which are located at a fixed height below the carcass. The carcass was suspended by its hind legs at a fixed height on the conveyor rail. The entrails therefore dropped or were manually removed from the carcass onto the table. Depending upon the size of the carcass the entrails will drop either a greater or lesser distance. In some cases, this resulted in rupturing of a portion of the entrails with consequent contamination of the edible portions thereof which must therefore be immediately condemned as unfit for consumption regardless of whether or not they were originally healthy. Furthermore, it is essential that the inspector shall inspect both the entrail cavity in the carcass, as well as the entrails from that carcass. In the past, this has been somewhat difficult and it is by no means uncommon for the inspector to be unable to match one set of entrails with the appropriate carcass, and the consequent confusion has resulted in possible condemnation of otherwise healthy materials, or alternatively the passing of unhealthy material.
Furthermore, the workmen responsible for opening the carcass and removing the entrails must be able to reach up to almost full height of the conveyor, to open a relatively short carcass, or must be able to work at a somewhat lower level to work on a larger carcass. Again, in the past the operator has been required to reach upwardly, or downwardly, depending upon the length of the carcass, and has been standing essentially on a fixed platform while he was working with consequent inconvenience and inefficiency.
In order to meet increasingly severe health standards imposed by governmental and state and provincial regulations, it is desirable that all equipment such as inspection tables and the like shall be continuously sterilized so that the entrails from each new carcass shall be placed on a totally sterile area of a table or conveyor. Again, this has in fact not always been achieved to the highest state of sanitation due to the physical impossibility of separating one set of entrails from the next on a moving table for example.
It is therefore a general objective of the invention to overcome the foregoing disadvantages and to provide a system of conveyor trays for entrails which will receive the entrails without rupturing a portion thereof, and which will enable the inspector to match up each set of entrails with the correct carcass, and which will permit him to accept or reject in a simple and effective manner, and which may be sterilized effectively for each successive usage, and also in which the operator working on the carcass conveyor line can be positioned at the appropriate height for opening the particular carcass in the most efficient manner, and in which handling of the entrails is minimized.